IQ Scores

IQ scores are higher among children who live in richer environments. In fact, a study done in Milwaukee about 40 years ago indicated a 30-point difference in IQ scores between kids in an enriched environment as compared with those in a deprived environment.

So, as part of the testing Maggie underwent early last week, the doctor and psychiatrist evaluated her IQ. She's kind of borderline, so it's iffy as to whether she'd get special-ed services if she were enrolled in public school. It's also clear that we'd be in trouble if we lived in one of those states that requires standardized testing for homeschoolers; she wouldn't even score high enough for the states that have a really really low requirement. Thank God for Wisconsin's homeschool law as it's stood for the last 25 years!

I kept thinking how well Maggie's doing ... but where would she have been without our homeschool law that allows me to fit our program to her needs? What if I'd needed to pass muster for the local school superintendent? What if I'd had to try to keep her up-to-snuff for an annual test? Or worse, what if she'd been in the public school? The programs in the public school are certainly more enriching than what the deprived kids in the Milwaukee Project got. But too often, the special-ed programs at school are stifling and discouraging and not altogether helpful. If we hadn't had the freedom to invent our funky, non-conventional, homeschool program, Maggie's IQ would have been significantly lower.